PartyGaming
on Friday said it hoped to strengthen its position
in the Hispanic market through the launch of a
three year alliance with Spain’s leading
gaming group, as it reported a steep fall in fourth
quarter revenues from its traditional online gambling
activities.

PartyGaming,
which operates online gaming websites like PartyPoker.com
and PartyCasino.com,
said its alliance with Cirsa Gaming Corporation
would enable it to “explore and develop
internet gaming opportunities in Spanish-speaking
countries.”

The
29-year-old Cirsa is based in Barcelona and began
as a manufacturer of slot machines. It owns and
operates bingo halls, casinos and amusement arcades
and operates in 70 countries. In Spain, where
it is the market leader, it runs 57 bingo clubs,
four casinos and 139 amusement arcades.

A
spokesman for PartyGaming said: “Cirsa is
a pretty well-known and trusted name. this is
about us leveraging these brands, like we have
done with ITV.”

ITV
Play runs a series of games such as Emmerdale
Bingo, powered by PartyGaming.

PartyGaming
said it was in discussion with other well-known
- but unnamed - operators about forming similar
alliances.

Jim
Ryan, chief executive, said: “”We
believe the combination of Cirsa’s assets
with our online gaming expertise will create a
major opportunity for both companies, especially
throughout the Spanish speaking world.”

The
news of the partnership with Cirsa came as PartyGaming
reported an 18 per cent fall in fourth quarter
revenues. US dollar currency movements, promotions,
tough competition and a delay in the launch of
a loyalty scheme launched in December, had all
taken their toll on revenues

Revenues
for the three months December 31 fell from $122.4m
to $100.4m. Foreign exchange movements had adversely
impacted revenues in the fourth quarter by about
$15m.

It
said on Friday that trading conditions “remained
tough”, but said that while currency movement
had affected revenues, they had had a corresponding
benefit on costs and as a result it expected clean
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortisation to be slightly ahead of market expectations.

Bwin
Interactive Entertainment, the Austrian Internet
bookmaker has reiterated forecasts for this and
last year’s core earnings despite a slight
slowdown in growth in the final quarter.

Analysts
have predicted strong growth for leisure companies
operating in the online space, even in the face
of increased competition as broadband becomes
more widely available across Europe and around
the world.

PartyGaming,
which is in talks with the US Department of Justice
with the aim of settling its US liabilities in
the wake of the crackdown on internet gambling
in 2006, said discussions with the DOJ “continue
to progress in line with our expectations.”

In
December Anurag Dikshit, co-founder of PartyGaming
pleaded guilty to a single charge of online gambling
and forfeited $300m, an outcome that in effects
ended the liability hanging over him.

Shares
slipped 3 per cent in early trade to 163¾p
by mid morning in London.

Profile

Spain
or the Kingdom of Spain
is a country located in southwestern Europe on
the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish mainland is
bordered to the south and east almost entirely
by the Mediterranean Sea (except for a tiny land
boundary with Gibraltar);
to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of
Biscay; and to the west by the Atlantic Ocean
and Portugal. Spanish territory also includes
the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the
Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African
coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa,
Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. With an
area of 504,030 km², Spain is the second
largest country in Western Europe (behind France)
and with an average altitude of 650 m, the second
highest country in Europe (behind
Switzerland).

Spain
is a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary
democracy, and has been a member of the European
Union since 1986. It is a developed country
with the eighth largest economy in the world and
fifth largest in the EU, based on nominal GDP.
(Credit:
Wikipedia)